


so I watch the summer stars to lead me home

by driedupwishes



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ereri Summer Weekend, M/M, Moon & Stars, Star Gazing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 21:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7773583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedupwishes/pseuds/driedupwishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi twisted, managing to turn without sticking his elbow through Eren’s gut to do so, something Eren wasn’t sure he could have managed if their roles had been reversed. Even in the darkness, with the pale moon and the shining stars as their only light, Levi’s eyes were still captivating and enchanting, glinting steel in the shadows that Eren felt like a physical thing against his face. Bright eyes and a gentle, frowning mouth, his love was so gorgeous, pale and soft and sharp in the dim light, that Eren bent to press their foreheads together, sighing once more and feeling the twitch of Levi’s lips as they reacted to that sigh.</p>
<p>“Tell me,” Levi asked quietly. Eren only smiled.</p>
<p>“What if all the stars are, like, different universes?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	so I watch the summer stars to lead me home

The summer air was cool around them, thanks to the passing rain, and the grass underneath the blanket Levi had dragged out of the car’s trunk was still damp with it. It kept the air cool, though bugs still buzzed and hummed in the distance, mosquitoes swooping in to be slapped at every couple of minutes. The clouds had cleared off, enough that the stars could be seen, sparkling and bright overhead.

Originally, they’d hiked out to hunt for Pokemon, Eren elbowing Levi up the side of the hill cresting the fields and woods below, chasing after another Eevee to trade in for candy, but after a while Eren had become more enchanted with the stars than the game, settling in to fall back against the grass until Levi had tossed up his hands and returned to the car for the blanket instead. Now their phones lay tossed aside and forgotten, any Pokemon around far from their minds as Levi propped his head on Eren’s shoulder, Eren’s other arm tracing constellations in the sky.

“Spill it,” Levi said abruptly, after Eren had traced Hercules for the third time. Eren jolted, then flushed, heat tracing down his throat and spilling down his collar, where Levi’s breath puffed gently against his skin.

“Spill _what_ ,” Eren muttered. He turned, kissing the top of Levi’s head because he could and then did it again, and again, Levi’s hair soft and smelling like his shampoo, a sweet familiar scent in Eren’s nose. Levi huffed and even without knowing, Eren could tell he was rolling his eyes. For all this kisses, Eren only got an elbow nudged gently against his side, the one where his arm was still dangling like a puppet’s toward the sky.

“Spill whatever the fuck you’re thinking about so much,” Levi said, just as gentle as his nudge. Eren felt his fingers curl, hand dropping to rest on his leg as his arm became suddenly too heavy to keep aloft any longer. He sighed, reaching up to drag a hand through his hair, and Levi waited, quiet and patient, squeezing Eren’s fingers softly.

“It’s nothing,” Eren said, which was true. It was just a stupid thought, one sitting at the tip of his tongue and yet, it was just so- _childish_ and stupid. He didn’t want to say it and have Levi _laugh_. He sighed again. “It’s really nothing. I was just- it’s stupid.”

Levi twisted, managing to turn without sticking his elbow through Eren’s gut to do so, something Eren wasn’t sure he could have managed if their roles had been reversed. Even in the darkness, with the pale moon and the shining stars as their only light, Levi’s eyes were still captivating and enchanting, glinting steel in the shadows that Eren felt like a physical thing against his face. Bright eyes and a gentle, frowning mouth, his love was so gorgeous, pale and soft and sharp in the dim light, that Eren bent to press their foreheads together, sighing once more and feeling the twitch of Levi’s lips as they reacted to that sigh.

“Tell me,” Levi asked quietly. Eren only smiled.

“What if all the stars are, like, different universes.”

In the darkness at the top of the hill, Eren watched Levi blink, confusing clouding his sharp eyes before his lips pursed together. Eren couldn’t help but huff laugh at himself for that statement, shaking his head as he continued to lean into Levi, so that their noses brushed gently together. Levi blinked, watching Eren so carefully his eyes went a little cross eyed, and Eren only laughed more, less of a huffed breath and more of an actual sound this time.

“I know, I know,” Eren murmured, swiping his free hand up Levi’s back, the flat of his palm dragging against the cotton of Levi’s shirt. Levi pressed back into the touch so minutely it had to be a subconscious decision, one which made Eren’s chest clench around his heart. “I’ve been playing too many video games, I _know_. I told you it was dumb.”

“It’s not _dumb_ ,” Levi said, eyebrows bending into a furrowed point, which Eren could feel against his own forehead. He paused for a moment, seeming to turn over everything he could say, and then seemed to settle on shrugging. “So what if all the stars are different universes,” Levi said softly. “Where’s the hold up? What’s got you tracing Hercules eight thousand fucking times?”

Eren snorted, the jolt of his shoulders knocking their noses together, lips brushing as Eren felt his shoulders ease from a tension he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in them. Levi in turn grinned, something Eren almost-felt against his own lips, and squeezed Eren’s waist with his legs around his waist, their positions all twisted until they were sitting in the v of each other’s legs, one arm curled around the other’s back, their other hands caught together in a tangle of fingers at their sides.

“Don’t be jealous of Hercules,” Eren muttered, because he wasn’t above trying to distract Levi from the realization that Eren was _really dumb_ , which would be where this conversation ended, if Eren kept talking about the subject at hand. “I’d trace you in the sky over him any day, babe, you know that.”

Levi rolled his eyes, something that sent Eren’s own head spinning, before pressing his knuckles against the ridges of Eren’s spine through his shirt and sighing.

“Eren,” Levi said lowly. And once again Eren could only smile wryly and shake his head, leaning back to give them both room to- to breathe, or something.

“If every star was a different universe,” Eren whispered, the words falling into the new space between them. “Do you think we’re still there?”

Something complicated flickered across Levi’s face, a bright emotion in the darkness around them. A flutter of lashes, like a shooting star, and Eren felt the need to _wish_ leap high in his throat, choking him. And then, in the span of a heartbeat, Levi’s face softened, lips twitching into a quick crooked smile, his free hand sliding up Eren’s spine to curl loosely around the back of his neck.

“Do I think we’re still there, in all those universes,” Levi repeated, still soft and smiling. Eren nodded and couldn’t speak, because it was just a dumb fucking thought, one he couldn’t help, because he had Levi _here_ , but what if somewhere out there was an Eren _without Levi?_

Levi sighed and shook his own head, legs shifting, scooting closer until he was curled all around Eren, legs tucked in a loose criss-cross around his back. Eren’s grip tightened on the back of Levi’s shirt, face flushing at the act, because this was _silly_ , but Levi scratched his nails gently through the short hairs at the nape of Eren’s neck and the tension slid off him like rainwater down a window pane.

“Sorry, it was a stupid thought,” Eren murmured, shaking his own head like he could knock the thought from his head, but Levi only thumbed at his throat and hummed quietly and the words stilled in Eren’s throat. Caught there, Eren could only peer into eyes like stardust itself, and wait.

“Yes,” Levi said, after a moment of careful consideration. “I do.”

Eren blinked. “You do?”

Levi nodded, leaning forward to brush their noses together with the motion before leaning back, recreating the space Eren had made between them while still engulfing him in his arms, and legs, and bright, bright eyes. “If all those fucking stars were different universes,” he said quietly, “then there’s gotta be a whole shitton of us out there, right? That’s, like, basic theoretical physics or something.”

“Oh,” Eren said. He swallowed, feeling a little bereft at having his silly, stupid, ridiculous idea _agreed with_. It was a little bit like reaching for something in the kitchen, half distracted by what he was cooking, and having Levi had it to him, mid-reach. Startling, but warming. He cleared his throat and Levi thumbed at his neck again, soothingly. “Do you think we’re still, y’know. _Together_?”

Levi’s little crooked smile grew, curling until it revealed teeth, which pulled at something in Eren’s chest until it felt like his lungs were collapsing and his heart was giving out, all at once. The feeling only became more intense when the shorter man said, so easily, “oh, fucking absolutely.”

Eren felt the air rush out of him, like a popped paper bag, leaving his head spinning as he sagged forward, into Levi’s space. “ _Oh_ ,” he said again, quietly. “Um. Me too.”

Levi laughed, his hand climbing up from his nape into his hair, combing through it, scratching against his scalp, easy and tactile and Eren’s head spun, Levi leaning forward to press their foreheads together again, their noses bumping gently as he did so.

“I can’t imagine any fucking life without you,” Levi murmured. Eren leaned forward, feeling the words as they were pressed against his lips, sharing in his huff of laughter as he did so because suddenly his chest was _so full_ , his fingertips were tingling, because holy _fuck_ , holy fucking _shit_ , Levi-

“Not in this universe or any other. If there’s a fuckton other versions of me out there, they’ve gotta be looking for you, or maybe they’ve already found you, either fucking way, any version of you there could be, he- you, fuck- the point is, they _aren’t alone_.”

Eren squeezes Levi’s fingers in his, too tightly probably, but he can’t help it, his chest splitting open, all the infinite possibilities coming to mind – all the lives they could lead, together, everywhere and anywhere, in fucking _space_ for fuck’s sake – and then suddenly Eren’s cradling Levi’s face, eyes stinging, blinking too quickly to keep the tears at bay as he pressed their lips together in a kiss that’s only not a crash because they were already there to begin with, already kissing before he even registers the act.

Levi pressed up into the kiss, tipped his head to the side to slot their mouths together for better access, and then used his arms around Eren’s neck to haul himself off the blanket and straight into Eren’s lap. They both laughed as the action almost knocked Eren over, rocked him back on his ass so far Levi had to splay out his legs to keep them steady, and then they were kissing again, slower, softer, like they had all the time in the world, lifetimes of time stretched across more possible universes than Eren could have ever counted, even if he lived to be as ancient as the planet itself. In the end Eren only leaned back and parted their lips for a second, his heart aching in the best kind of way in his chest as he did so, Levi’s breath ghosting across his lips, nose dragging against his cheek in a soft, careful nuzzle.

“I love you,” Eren told Levi. “In this universe, and I’m sure in every other one imaginable. I fucking _love you_.”

Levi laughed, the sound ringing, dancing up into the atmosphere itself to drift out among the black of space, reaching for all those stars, the idea of all those universes. No sound could exist in space, but if there was any sound powerful and pure enough to do so, Eren thought it’d be Levi’s laughter in that moment, loud and vibrant and _alive_.

“I fucking love _you_ ,” Levi told him. “I will always, _always_ fucking love you.”

And Eren laughed too, leaning into kiss him, because he believed it, without a doubt in his mind; whatever happened, Levi loved him, to the reaches of the stars and back.

**Author's Note:**

> listen I know I wrote cuddling and fluff talk for _all three days_ of this weekend event, but can u blame me??? I just want them happy okay
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this thing and the whole weekend of the event! I know I enjoyed writing them all ;^)


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